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The Best of The Upgrade 2018


Another year in life hacks come and gone! We’re celebrating our favorite moments, hacks, guests and episodes of 2018 with this, our annual Best of The Upgrade episode. Whether you’re a lifelong listener taking a trip down memory lane, or new listener looking to dip a toe in the magic that is The Upgrade, we’re here for you. And what would an end-of-year episode be without our annual tradition of Alice and Melissa singing Auld Lang Syne? Just kidding! It’s our Upgrades of the Year, of course.

Listen to The Upgrade above or find us in all the usual places where podcasts are served, including Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, and NPR One. Please subscribe, rate, and review.

Anne Lamott Upgrades Our Lives

There is some sort of loving energy in the world.


How to Conquer Your Fears, With Meditation Teacher Dean Sluyter

A lot of people feel that if they’re not worried, they’re being irresponsible. [But] worry actually does not help.

How to Calm Down, With ASMR University Founder Craig Richard

To see so many other people getting so much benefit perks me up as a researcher.

How Psychedelics Can Expand Your Consciousness, With Michael Pollan

It was absolute obliteration of any categories of experience. I’m talking about self, gone. Time, gone. Place or space, gone. It was just existing in this field of pure energy

How to Find Love, With Matchmaker Dr. Frankie Bashan

I’ve really been encouraging my clients to get offline and think about meeting people in your world. You know, people that are in proximity to you.

How to Save Your Relationship, With Divorce Lawyer James J. Sexton

If there was an infidelity-generating machine, it would basically be Facebook.

How to Fix a Broken Heart, With Psychologist Guy Winch

‘The mother died a year ago and I should be better.’ What does that mean to her? What does she, where does she think she should be? That it doesn’t bother her at all? Uh, no. When your mother dies, it can be 20 years later. If you were close with your mother and you think about it, you might tear up. That doesn’t mean you haven’t grieved correctly.

How to Reinvent Yourself, With Coss Marte and Lawrence O’Donnell


It was just me with an idea written down. And I was sleeping on my mom’s couch. I went back to my mom’s block that was still the place where I was only allowed to parole. And I came there and I was waking up every morning and during the workout in the street and I would run side by side next to a female wearing yoga pants and start pitching them.

How to Drink Less, With Annie Grace

There’s this thing called spontaneous sobriety where people just say, ‘I’m done. I’m sick of this.’ They make a single decision. And statistically, the research has shown that people who do that, just spontaneous sobriety, no rehab, no treatment, make one permanent decision in their lives that they’re just done with this substance are on average three to five times more likely to stay sober than AA.

How to Be a Successful Artist, With Gilmore Girl’s Keiko Agena and Author Ottessa Moshfegh

The best part of getting to do this business has nothing to do with, you know, fame or going to premiere parties, actually that’s the difficult part. But the best part of it is really to find these moments where I can let down my guard, because a lot of times I feel like we’re in a performance of ourselves ... And it’s ironic that in this medium of acting where you’re pretending to be someone else, it gives me a chance to let down my performance of myself.

How to Fail, With Comedians Chris Gethard and Akilah Hughes

You can steal a big roll, you can steal a small roll... I mean, look. Any paper can be toilet paper.

Upgrades of the Year

Every week we talk about the tiny changes that are making a big difference in our lives. In this episode we went over the top upgrades of our years, which were: buying a pedal assist bike (Melissa), learning to knit and knitting tons of holiday gifts (Rachel), and hiring an online personal trainer/nutritionist (Alice).